So should Kate Winslet thank Ricky Gervais for giving her the secret to winning an Academy Award?
Category: Movie Dramas (Page 161 of 188)
Finally! We love Kate. “The Reader” – not so much.
There are times when we swear that “Entertainment Weekly” has either bugged our office or is tapping into our conference calls. Numerous pieces of ours wind up on their pages at almost the exact same time, be it a list of the best sequels, cinematic stoners, or our long-gestating piece on the Bullz-Eye Fantasy Band Draft, which will drop later this year. They’ve even named their hot/not meter “The Bullseye.” Hmmm.
And sure enough, they scooped us once again, when they put the top awards from various Academy Awards results to a new vote, to see how the current Academy would fix the previous generation’s “mistakes.” We’ve been throwing that idea around for over a year, and just when we begin to put pen to paper: boom! — they beat us to the punch. We’re not at all surprised that they saw the appeal in such a topic; every year there is at least one head-scratching moment, one that usually owes more to awarding a long-overdue actor for their overall body of work than for the performance at hand (ahem, Al Pacino, “Scent of a Woman”). Enter Bullz-Eye, Mighty Mouse-style, to save the day and make sure justice is served. We’ve examined recent Academy Award winners and their competitors, and we found a few, um, irregularities. Revisionist history begins now.
Elaine Benes summed up our feelings for “The English Patient” as well as anyone. Actually, that’s a tad unfair; we didn’t think “Patient” was awful, just long and, in the end, anti-climactic. Without Juliette Binoche carrying her co-stars from start to finish (her Oscar, unlike this one, was well deserved), we wonder if “Patient” would have received half the praise that it did. Then there’s “Fargo,” which featured invaluable contributions from its leads, the supporting cast, and even the characters who were only in a scene or two (Marge Gunderson’s Japanese high school classmate had us in tears). It’s funny, shocking, coy, and best of all, normal, an expertly crafted movie all the way around. Guess the Academy wasn’t quite ready for the Coen brothers yet.
To be fair, this one isn’t a staff pick; it’s mine and mine alone. My colleague Jason Zingale loved “Crash,” as did most people. I, however, loathed it like no movie I’ve seen since “Shrek.” The manner in which people would instantly spew the most hateful, ignorant nonsense in scene after scene was just unbearable, and I wanted to throttle Sandra Bullock’s ridiculously underwritten shrew of a character. Granted, “Brokeback Mountain” is not a perfect movie by any stretch, but I’ll take it over “Crash” any day of the week and twice on Sunday for the sheer fact that it didn’t try to beat me into a coma about what a racist pig I am. Fuck you, Paul Haggis.
Movies starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe are usually expected to do big business at the box office, so how did “Body of Lies” only manage to earn $40 million during its domestic release? Chalk it up to post-9/11 fatigue, as Ridley Scott was clearly late to the party when choosing a political thriller set in the Middle East as his next project. Still, even though the movie didn’t do well stateside, it made nearly twice as much overseas, proving that both actors still have major star appeal. And as a result of its overall performance, Warner Bros. has produced a well-balanced collection of special features for the film’s Blu-ray release.
“Audio Commentary”
Director Ridley Scott, screenwriter William Monahan and author David Ignatius all sit in on this audio commentary to discuss the film, but unlike your typical track, each participant has recorded their thoughts separately. At first, it may seem a little strange to have the commentary jump back and forth between those involved, but it actually works better than most tracks because you don’t have to worry about people getting cut off or having the discussion pushed in another direction. Scott ends up dominating a majority of the commentary anyway, but sadly, he has very little to say about the actual making of the film, and instead just explains everything that’s happening on screen.
“Actionable Intelligence”
The Blu-ray version allows you to access this collection of nine mini-featurettes as you watch the film, but they can also be viewed individually via the special features menu. Running 79 minutes in total, this is the closest you’re going to get to a making-of featurette, including a behind-the-scenes look at production and costume design, stunts and special effects, and profiles on the lead actors. The best of the bunch, however, are two in-depth featurettes dubbed “Field Operation” that go into greater detail about the making of two crucial action sequences.
“Interactive Debriefing”
Scott, DiCaprio and Crowe sit down to discuss their thoughts on the film’s story, collaborating with one another, and the CIA. I’m not exactly sure what’s “interactive” about the feature aside from the ability to choose what order you view the interviews, but they do provide great insight into the film. Crowe’s interviews, in particular, are worth checking out, as it’s the only time he appears anywhere in the bonus material.
“Deleted Scenes”
Of the five deleted scenes included, only one is worth checking out – a lengthy sequence where Golshifteh Farahani’s character discovers what Roger Ferris really does for a living – while Scott’s optional commentary proves just as frustrating as the movie track. The fact that none was recorded for the alternate ending is only more maddening – especially because it’s superior to the one that appears in the theatrical version.
That may not seem like a lot, but trust me, by the time you’re finished with the single-disc release of “Body of Lies,” there’s nothing more you’ll want to know. Plus, as always, a digital copy of the film has also been included for your convenience. Just a quick note to Warner Brothers: you guys have done a great job on your Blu-rays, but in the future, can you please take us to a static menu instead of auto-playing the movie? It’s pretty annoying.
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